I have decided that with the growth of the search engine optimization (SEO) industry, it is essential to make sure that we don’t overlook the many newcomers. With lots of new business owners and webmasters checking out SEO for the first time there is a need to share information on seo basics with each other. This is the first in a series of articles designed to assist with the basic information required to start a search engine marketing campaign.

To start with, I wish to ensure we discuss the significance of a good foundation. When starting any SEO campaign it is tempting to leap straight in and start changing text. However, like any successful marketing strategy, it is vital to ensure that you know whom your audience is and how to reach them. In the same way traditional advertising agencies survey their demographic audience, search engine marketers need to ensure that their SEO campaign targets the correct keywords or search phrases. Target the wrong search phrase and you could end up getting great search engine rankings for keywords that have no search requests. A couple of hours now spent making certain the correct search phrases are targeted can save months of useless optimization.

Brainstorm

When you started your company or created your products, you no doubt sat down with your friends, relatives and business partners and discussed the requirements of your target audience. You would have been foolish to stubbornly press ahead with your products without first assessing the market to determine if there was a need. Likewise, when you begin your SEO campaign it is important to brainstorm search phrases that are prone to bring qualified visitors to your website. Sit down with your co-workers and business partners and go over which keywords are relevant to the products and services you offer. Compile a preliminary list of 5-10 search phrases that you feel best represent your company and which you believe people would type into a search engine when trying to find you.

2. Which of your products are in stock? There is no point targeting search phrases that are popular if you don’t actually stock that item.

3. Which products have the highest profit margin? If you had just a $.20 mark-up on a very popular product, could you sell enough online to produce a profit? A product that is less searched but has a greater profit margin would be easier to obtain a search engine ranking and would yield higher revenues.

4. Identify your biggest competitors. View competitor websites and see which products they may actually target; which search phrases do they have rankings for?

Make use of any PPC data

Odds are, your decision to begin a SEO campaign is fueled by your need to reduce costly pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. While dependence on PPC will be reduced with a decent SEO campaign, you can make use of your current PPC efforts when researching your search phrases to focus on. Analyze your PPC keywords and look to see which of them have brought the highest traffic levels, best click through rates and greater sales conversions. It is likely a search phrase that brought successful results through a PPC campaign will be very relevant in your mission for obtain top search engine positioning.

Expanding your Keyword list

Once you have completed your brainstorming and have compiled your list of 5-10 core keywords, it’s time to move on and expand that list. A list of 5-10 search phrases will not, as I am sure you will know, bring the volume of search engine traffic needed to make your website successful. However, that list will be an important tool when determining which phrases to add to the mix. At this point, you have to turn to the search engines themselves and research which search phrases are in fact being typed into Google, Yahoo, Bing et al. Fortunately there are some very useful tools you can use to expand your list. The most well known are: WordTracker, WordStream and Google Adwords.

This is a 3 part series. Look for the other 2 parts to this series: Part 2: Determining Competition and Part 3: Selecting Your Keywords

This is the third in a series of articles created to assist with the basic information required to start a search engine marketing campaign. In Part 1 of this series: Brainstorm you have investigated who your audience is, its demographics and how to reach them. You’re working on finding the correct search phrases or keywords. In Part 2 of this series : Determining Competition you have looked at what the competition is for that phrase or keyword to determine if it’s already saturated. Now is the time to select the keywords and phrases which will best benefit your search engine optimization campaign.

Selecting Your Keywords

By now, you should have an expanded list of search phrases to target, taken from either WordTracker, WordStream and/or Google Adwords. In addition, you should also have a good idea as to the competition for each of these keywords, whether you used the tools supplied by them or even using the basic Google method. Now is the time to start selecting the search phrases which will form the basis for a successful SEO campaign. Ok, deep breath, we’re almost there.

When selecting the keywords to target, there are many components you must take into account. You will no doubt have your own unique considerations, but you must also take into account the following:

1. Is the search phrase relevant to your website and the page that you’re optimizing?

2. Is there a page within your website that would be particularly ideal for targeting the selected search phrase?

3. How many other websites/web pages would you be competing against?

4. Do you offer competitive pricing for the product or service that relates to the keyword?

5. Will top search engine ranking for the search phrase generate enough revenue for your company?

Arranging Keywords into Themes

Once you have asked yourself the above questions, it will become easy to restrict your list to the main search phrases that you wish to target. When doing so, remember that you should not try and target every selected search term on your index page. Your index page is the most important page of your website and likely to have the best positioning on the search engines, therefore choose 5-10 search phrases to focus on here and ensure that they are all closely related. Attempting to target “desktop computers” and “dvd players” on your index page will get you top rankings for neither. Instead, identify the pages within your website that target those particular keywords and use those instead. The key to choosing keywords to target for each page is to think of “themes”. Each page should ideally target just one theme. This will help you in making sure the targeted page is relevant to the selected search phrase. In turn, this will not only increase your odds of obtaining top rankings, but also improve your customer sales conversions by bringing the visitor to the most relevant page.

This is a three part series. Look for the other 2 parts to this series: Part 1: Brainstorm and Part 3: Selecting Your Keywords

In summary

When researching search phrases and targeting keywords for your SEO campaign, it is important to follow the steps above. Research your industry, consult your potential customers and take advantage of the themes within your website. In addition, consider these final tips:

Determine the intent of the visitor. Thoroughly research all search terms to make sure that the searcher meant to find your product or service. E.g. reconsider targeting the keyword “DVD” if you store only sells blank DVD discs, the probabilities are the searcher meant to find DVD movies instead of blank media.

Know your industry. You must know your industry and account for any seasonal or other trends. E.g. the search phrase “red roses” will be more popular for Valentines than at Christmas.

Look for opportunities. Identify the search phrases that have been untapped by your competitors. Some search terms may have slightly fewer searches, but may have dramatically fewer competitors.

Target the right pages. This cannot be stressed enough. Do not try and target every keyword on every page. Identify themes within your website and set relevant search phrases into the wording on those pages. You will notice much better results.

Here is the second in a series of articles designed to assist with the fundamental information required to begin a search engine marketing campaign. In Part 1 of this series: Brainstorm you have researched who your audience is, its demographics and how to reach them. You’re focusing on making the list of 5-10 search phrases or keywords. Now you need to assess the online competition for these phrases or keywords.

Determining Competition

Once you have identified possible additions to your search phrase list, you need to research further to determine if there is a good chance you will achieve your prized top search engine ranking or if the competition for that phrase is already saturated. While it could be tempting to target only search phrases that are very well liked and searched hundreds of thousands of times in a single month, you have to also consider the likelihood of you being able to obtain a ranking higher enough to capitalize on all of that great traffic. Many, many search terms are so saturated by competitors that it might be highly unlikely that you would achieve a high enough ranking to reward your time and efforts. Therefore, it is often worthwhile considering those search phrases that may not have quite the same level searches each month, but likewise do not have as many websites targeting that term.

Both WordTracker and WordStream have tools that may help you to determine the competition for your target keyword phrases.

For those of you on a really strict budget, there is an alternative, though not nearly as effective answer. Enter each identified search phrase at Google, using quotations around the phrase (e.g. “discount computers”). Google will then show the search results for all pages that target that phrase exactly as entered. View under the search box and you will see the amount of results Google matched. This number shows the total number of web pages that Google has recognized as targeting that exact search phrase. This number signifies your competition. Make a note of this number for each of your identified search phrases and pretty soon you will be able to see which of your search phrases have the most competition and which have less competitors and as a result a better chance of obtaining top ranking.